Canada has decided to prohibit the use of the Chinese messaging application WeChat and the Russian antivirus program Kaspersky on government-issued mobile devices due to concerns about privacy and security risks. However, the government assured that there had been no compromise of government information.

The ban was declared following an assessment conducted by Canada's chief information officer, who concluded that, both WeChat, owned by Tencent (0700. HK), and applications created by Moscow-based Kaspersky "pose an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security." This decision was conveyed by the Treasury Board of Canada, the body responsible for overseeing public administration, through an official statement.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular press briefing, "We hope that the Canadian side will discard ideological prejudices, abide by the principles of market economy and provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises."

Kaspersky expressed surprise and disappointment in response to the ban. The company emphasized that the decision was made abruptly, without prior notice, and without affording them an opportunity to engage with the government to address its concerns.

"As there has been no evidence or due process to otherwise justify these actions, they are highly unsupported and a response to the geopolitical climate rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services," the company said in a statement.

WeChat did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment. According to the Treasury Board, while there is no evidence of government information compromise, the data collection methods employed by these applications allow substantial access to device contents, and the associated risks of using them were deemed evident.

"The decision to remove and block the WeChat and the Kaspersky applications was made to ensure that government of Canada networks and data remain secure and protected and are in line with the approach of our international partners," the statement said.

The applications will be removed from government-issued mobile devices, and future downloads will be blocked. In a related development, Canada had previously banned TikTok, a short video app owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, from government-issued devices in February due to analogous privacy and security concerns.

,Image source: The economic times